Luxology Render Dialog

Used to add or modify Luxology rendering settings and to preview the rendering.

You can access this dialog from the following:

Ribbon: Visualization > Home > Rendering > Render Scene
Toolbox: Render
Key-in: DIALOG LUXOLOGY OPEN

The Luxology Render application is modeless and coexists with the standard application view windows. Since the Luxology rendering process is multi-threaded, which means that once the preprocessing stage of a rendering is completed, you can continue to work while the rendering process is in progress.

When the configuration variable MS_LUXOLOGY_TMP is set to a valid directory, all temporary files needed for the rendering and storage of Luxology images are placed in the location specified by this variable. Since this can be a large amount of data, it is best to use a local drive for optimum performance.

Note: When MicroStation is installed on a 64-bit OS, the Luxology engine that is installed will also be 64-bit. This expands the memory available to the Luxology engine and improves speed and reliability.

Setting	Description
Render	Starts the luxology rendering process to render a new solution of a selected view or, if a fence is present in the view, the fence contents.
Cancel Render	(Enabled only when a rendering is in progress) Aborts the current luxology rendering.
Redisplay Solution	Where the only change to a rendered scene is the camera view, lets you reuse the current solution. This greatly speeds up the rendering time.
Fast Preview	Gives a fast preview of the rendering as per the settings in Preview section of Preferences Dialog, Render Category.
Progressive Render	Refines the rendering or a selected area for refinement as per the Refinement Limit, Save Frequency, and Redisplay Existing Solution settings found in Preferences Dialog, Render Category.
Distributed Rendering	Creates a distributed rendering job that renders a new solution of a selected view or, if a fence is present in the view, the fence contents.
Open the light setup dialog	Opens the Light Manager dialog which is used to control light setups and the settings for both global and source lighting.
Select a light setup to render with	Opens a drop-down menu from which you can select and set the current lighting setup from the previously saved setups.
Open the environment setup dialog	Opens the Environment Manager dialog which contains controls for environmental settings for Luxology rendering, as well as controls the visibility of these environment settings.
Select an environment setup to render with	You can select predefined setups, from the drop-down menu, stored in the file LuxologyRender.dgnlib in the ..\Default\Dgnlib\Render folder in MicroStation's program directory.
Open the render setup dialog	Opens the Render Setup Manager dialog which is used to create custom rendering setups for use with Luxology.
Select a render setup to render with	You can select predefined setups, from the drop-down menu, stored in the file LuxologyRender.dgnlib in the ..\Default\Dgnlib\Render folder in MicroStation's program directory.
Reset Pop-up Menu to select Tone Mapping Mode	Lets you select the tone mapping modes and settings: Brightness Multiplier — scales all pixels by a specified factor in the next rendering. Brightness Multiplier mode is an automatic adjustment and when set to 1.0 means you use the automatic adjustment based on the brightness of the view. Higher numbers make the image brighter by that amount. As long as an image is displayed in the Luxology Render dialog, the Brightness Adaptation and Brightness Multiplier levels synchronize with each other. Brightness Adaptation — sets the brightness for the middle of the range. That is, the intensity (in lumens) that should be used as the middle of the display range for the next rendering. The Brightness Adaptation mode is an approximation of the way the eye works. When you focus on a certain part of a scene, your eyes adapt to the brightness on the point on which you focus. Brighter areas appear washed out, and darker areas lose detail. For example, imagine sitting in a dark room looking out the window towards a bright field. When you focus on the bright outdoors, everything in the room appears dark. If, instead, you focus on something in the room, (after a few seconds) you will see that clearly, but the outside scene looks washed out. The key to using Brightness Adaptation is that you are pick the actual brightness level (in lux) to which you want the eye to adapt. Drago — Drago tone mapping imitates the response of the human eye. The Drago mode is used to display high contrast images on devices with limited dynamic range of luminance values. The method is based on compression of luminance values, imitating the human response to light, with good preservation of details and contrast. Reinhard — Reinhard tone mapping is one of the most prevalent and it is based on the work of Erik Reinhard. This mode works best with complete images where all pixels are lit; does not work well when you have many unlit background pixels. Reinhard deals with the mapping of the potentially high dynamic range of real world luminances to the low dynamic range print or screen. The range of light we experience in the real world is vast; however, the range of light we can reproduce on our print and screen display devices spans at best about two orders of absolute dynamic range. Reinhard tone mapping mode is used to map measured/simulated scene luminances to display luminances to produce a satisfactory image. Photographic — If enabled, photographic tone mapping is applied to the image. This setting produces an image that is similar to what your eyes see. This applies particularly to images with a small dynamic range (where the lightest pixel is only about 100 times brighter than the darkest). Where the image has a high dynamic range, the normal image may be better. Essentially, tone mapping is mapping the values of the pixels from lux (lumens per square meter) into the 0-255 range for graphics displays. No matter what, some tone mapping operator is always required. Comparing the two methods: Photographic Tone Mapping tries to approximate the human visual system. Non-Photographic Tone Mapping tries to spread the brightnesses across the range of the display. In general, Non-Photographic Tone Mapping always gives you a reasonable image; Photographic Tone Mapping gives you a more realistic image. Note: Luxology renders to a 64-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) image. These images must be tone mapped to display on non-HDR monitors. Update Light Setup — Updates the active light setup with the currently selected Brightness, Contrast, Tone Mapping, and Gamma settings. Brightness, Contrast, Tone Mapping, and Gamma defaults used when beginning a new rendering are always taken (pulled) from the active light setup. This means that each image has a predictable starting point and Luxology images created from other dialogs (such as Save Multiple) will have the same appearance. In a typical workflow, you can render an image in the Luxology Render dialog, tweak your image settings with visual feedback, then push the settings back to the active light setup. You then can save the modified setup for later use in the Luxology Render dialog or other rendering dialogs such as the Render Image To File or Render Multiple Images dialog. As long as an image is displayed in the Luxology Render dialog, the tone mapping modes synchronize with each other.
Brightness	(Tone Mapping Mode set to Brightness Adaptation, Brightness Multiplier) Controls the brightness for the rendering, in combination with the Brightness Adaptation/Brightness Multiplier toggle. You can type values directly, or use the slider. The allowable range depends on the selected mode: Brightness Adaptation – allowable range is 0.001 to 501188.0. Brightness Multiplier – allowable range is -4 to 4.
Contrast	(Tone Mapping Mode set to Brightness Adaptation, Brightness Multiplier, Reinhard) Controls the overall image contrast for the rendering. You can type values directly, or use the slider. When set to Brightness Adaptation or Brightness Multiplier, the allowable contrast range is -2 to 2. When set to Reinhard, the allowable range is 0.3 to 1.0. If set to 0, the contrast is calculated automatically.
Exposure	(Tone Mapping Mode set to Drago) Exposure value field and slider allows you to adjust the brightness of the output image to your displaying conditions, in the range of [-8, 8]. The default value (0) means that no correction is applied. Higher values make the image lighter whereas lower values make the image darker.
Intensity	(Tone Mapping Mode set to Reinhard) The Intensity value and slider, in the range [-8, 8], controls the overall image intensity. The default value 0 means no correction. Higher values make the image lighter whereas lower values make the image darker.
View	Sets the view you want to render with Luxology.
Render Image Size	Controls the size of the rendering. If locked, X and Y will be constrained to a fixed aspect ratio.
Reset Pop-up Menu on Preview Window	Delete - Deletes the currently displayed image from history. Copy - Copies the current Luxology rendering to the clipboard.
Previous Luxology Render	(Enabled only when a previous rendered image is available) Clicking the icon lets you view the previously rendered image. Clicking the down-arrow opens a drop-down menu from which you may select any previous history image to view. You can use the Preferences Dialog, Render Category to set the number of history images stored (default 100).
Next Luxology Render	(Enabled only when a latter rendered image is available) Clicking the icon lets you view the next rendered image. Clicking the down-arrow opens a drop-down menu from which you may select any latter history image to view. You can use the Preferences Dialog, Render Category to set the number of history images stored (default 100).
Render Output Display	Depending on your render settings, you can choose to display different render outputs. The Alpha render output option is available in the display drop-down even if Alpha or Color & Alpha is not selected in the Render Output setting. However, in such cases, when you select Alpha from the display drop-down, you will see a full opaque alpha image in the preview window. Note: The brightness levels can differ greatly between numerous render output types. You may adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma levels for each output individually and these are stored in the BIMG file. If you want to use the Save All Image Layers to File tool, you should make all the brightness, contrast, and gamma adjustments for each layer prior to saving.
Save Image To File	Opens the Create Luxology File dialog, which lets you save the current Luxology rendering to an image file. Controls on this dialog are identical to those on the Save As dialog. The standard image formats are available as well as "Radiance High Dynamic Range" (HDR). The HDR format stores high-definition imagery that you can post process in other applications. If you have rendered a scene using the Piranesi Rendering Setup, you can save it as a Piranesi .epx file. Antialiasing should remain off (default) in this setting. Enabling antialiasing will produce undesirable artifacts. Clicking the down arrow allows you to select a file or multiple files to save in the required image format. The files that make up the list will depend on where you are in history. For instance, if you have 100 images in your history folder and you are currently on the 50th image, then you will only see the first 50 images. To see all 100 images use the right arrow to move to last image, then click the save image down arrow to see the entire list. Right-clicking in the Output File field presents the following options: Cut — Cuts the text from the Output File field. Copy — Copies the text from the Output File field. Paste — Pastes text into the Output File field. Delete — Deletes the text from the Output File field. Select All — Selects the text in the Output File field. Clear — Clears the text in the Output File field. Design File (%d) — Includes the design file name as part of the file name. Model Name (%m) — Includes the model name as part of the file name. Render Setup (%s) — Includes the render setup name as part of the file name. Entry Number (%e) — Includes the entry number (index) as part of the file name. Auto-increment (%a) — Automatically increments the numbers appended to the file name. Note: %e or %a or both should be used when saving multiple history images. Save Layers — Automatically saves multiple output channels (layers). Prior to using this option you should adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma for each layer to acceptable values. This tool works similar to the Save Image to File tool, except the output type names are automatically appended to file name.
Save Displayed Image to History	(Only available when rendering with progressive refinement) While progressive refinement rendering is running, you can click this icon to push the Bentley Image floating point (BIMG) to the Luxology history folder where it can be tone mapped and saved to a RGB image, such as TIFF, BMP, JPEG.
Select Area to Render Progressively	(Only available when rendering with progressive refinement) When on, click and drag in the image to select an area to focus progressive rendering on.
More image settings	Zoom — Opens the Zoom dialog where you can set a custom percentage or select preset values for the magnification of the image. Alternatively, you can use the mouse wheel on the Preview Window. Display — Option menu that lets you set the output color mode for the displayed image: Full Color — Image displays in full color. Monochrome — Image displays in gray-scale Analytic — Image displays in a false-color display of the light (excluding ambient) reaching surfaces. Red represents the most through to Blue, which represents the least. Colors range from: Red > Orange > Yellow > Green > Blue. Stereo — When a stereo image is displayed, you use this setting to switch between displaying a side-by-side stereo pair or an anaglyph display. This setting is enabled only when you turn on the Stereo check box in the Render Setup Manager dialog. Visible Edges — Used to turn on or off the visible edges overlay. To enable this setting, you must first turn on the Render Visible Edges check box in the Render Setup Manager dialog's Settings tab. Image Settings — Opens the Luxology Image Settings dialog.
Preview Window	Displays the Luxology rendering.